Singing Revolution: The Musical arrives just in time to lift us up out of our pandemic funk with a blast of joy and hope.
The show tells the unusual story of Estonia’s 1987 song-filled, peaceful uprising against communist Russia. The tiny country stood up to its occupiers by protesting in a non-violent way, using the power of song to help achieve its goals of freedom and democracy. The tale has been turned into a big, brash American musical by Tony Spinosa and James Bearhart, and it’s just what we need to cheer us up in these parlous times.
A love story lies at the heart of Singing Revolution. Taavi Tamm (James Everts), a young, idealistic Estonian falls for Sofia Solokov (Bella Hicks), the daughter of Nikolai (Michael Scott Harris), the Russian commanding officer in the capital of Tallinn. This was when the Soviet Union had turned Estonia into a satellite state right after WW II. Although Taavi’s anti-communist father is eventually arrested and shipped to Siberia by the thuggish Nikolai, the love affair thrived for a time, only to be sundered by the ideological pressures of the age. Boy loses girl, but only for a while; they get back together later, when Sofia finally learns what a monster her father is. This happy ending is tied into the collapse of the Soviet Union and the liberation of Estonia from totalitarian rule. Cue the triumphant song, “Lift It Up,” belted out by the 20-person cast (and a sizzling-hot band led by Brent Crayon).
Singing Revolution’s story spans four decades and includes numerous sub-plots, much singing and dancing, and quite a bit of slapstick, with Adam Wylie, Anthony Marciona and Peter Van Norden impersonating Josef Stalin, Vladimir Lenin and Mikhail Gorbachev in rough-and-tumble skits which also serve to explain the history behind Estonia’s plight as an Iron Curtain country. The musical has undoubtedly been made even more relevant by the current conflict between Russia and the Ukraine. It’s colonizer vs. natives all over again.
Singing Revolution: The Musical is an ambitious work, backed by a large and talented cast, dozens of songs, and lavish production values. The show also has ambitions to make it in New York (its co-producer is NewYorkRep). Whether this world-premiere musical will find success in Manhattan remains to be seen; what is certain, though, is that it delivers a welcome shot in the arm to plague-numbed L.A.
